Human frailty is the heart of ‘ Fanfiction’
Colfer’s teen novel feels a little forced, but its aim is true
There’s something about putting people on pedestals when they’re just trying to stand on their own two feet. There’s always a risk they’ll fall and reveal themselves to be human. Chris Colfer’s Stranger
Than Fanfiction ( Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 304 pp., eegE out of four) is a story about that fall.
The actor’s teen novel follows four college- bound friends as they gear up for a cross- country road trip, their last hurrah before life inevitably takes them on separate journeys.
We are introduced to Christopher “Topher” Collins, a smart kid whose ties to his mother and brother keep him tethered to his small town of Downers Grove, Ill.; Joey Davis, a preacher’s son and aspiring actor thrust on a public stage by his father’s calling and compelled to hide the fact that he’s gay; Sam Gibson, a born designer who longs to change the reflection in the mirror and channels that yearning into art; andMoriko “Mo” Ishikawa, a creative writer who finds sanctuary in stories when she can’t find it under her father’s roof.
All dream of a life beyond the stifling suburb of Downers Grove.
One hit television show takes them there: Wiz Kids.
Former Glee star Colfer, who also writes the best- selling kids’ series The Land of Stories, knows this territory well and mines his personal experiences to describe the fandom behindWiz Kids.
Top- lined by child star-turned- Hollywoodbad- boy Cash Carter, Wiz Kids has reinforced the group’s understanding of belonging and heroes.
It’s why Topher sends an email inviting the world- famous actor on their trip, though he would have never imagined the actor would actually join them.
Nor could he and his friends imagine that the real Carter — a rough- aroundtheedges, weed- smoking cynic — would stray so far from their romanticized vision. But that is the heart of Colfer’s point: Our heroes are just human.
Unfortunately, the heart stops there. With its stilted narration and self- conscious dialogue, there’s not much room in Fanfiction to just let the characters be, to let them stand on their own two feet— in all of their color, complexity and conviction — and trust that readers will get it.
The result? Otherwise authentic moments that feel forced and real- life struggles that don’t hit home nearly as hard as they should.
Instead of showing characters’ anxieties — about their gender, their sexuality, their economic reality or their romantic one — Colfer explains them to diminishing effect.
Still, in a political climate where people like the teens in Stranger Than Fanfiction feel under threat, perhaps it’s good that such stories are being told at all. They give space to start a conversation — one that can go beyond the constraints of 304 pages.